Some thoughts on ... There's a method to the madness! Pete Townshend's storytelling is the number one reason to love The Who. He's written six rock operas (Tommy, Lifehouse, Quadrophenia, White City, Iron Man and Psychoderelict). His contemporaries write great songs, but only Pete Townshend tells us something bigger. Pete makes his audience work - you often need to listen to the album, read prose on the album and see the movie. Instead of writing in polyglot, Pete writes in polymedia.

It took Roger Daltrey's masculine voice to sing songs of insecurity. John Entwistle and Keith Moon's bass and drum fills let Pete play a unique style of rhythm-lead. The Who were always pioneers - the first band to smash their instruments to get media and audience attention, the first band to use feedback in a song (Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere), the first rock opera (Tommy), the first rock album to use the synthesizer in rock (Who's Next). And more. The Who challenged themselves and those around them.

I'm impressed with the number of songs in The Who's catalogue. Next time someone tells you that only The Beatles wrote so many songs, show 'em Odds And Sods and the remastered Who's Next. I'm also a fan of the individual band members. Especially Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey.

I first heard The Who at sleepaway camp in the early 80's. My first memories of The Who were the Tommy album and Eminence Front (which was on the radio a lot then). I bought the Tommy cassette and got into The Who. Within a few months, I had everything available of The Who on cassette. Then came cds. I saw The Who in Miami in July 1989, a month after graduating high school. I live in far away Jerusalem. Thanks to the Internet, I've had the chance to chat with lots of you. Some of you have been kind enough to trade and even give me some cool Who things. I hope some people from The Who read this and take it for what it is - someone saying thanx!

But I have personal reasons for liking The Who. They inspire me. Its what we pay our $15 for, no?